Chapter Seventeen: Satix Zapini

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Jaina only just missed the blaster fire. In fact, Jaina Solo pre-death would never have made it, would never have been able to translate the warning into movement fast enough. It was only with her new strength in the Force, and Sanar's reflexes, that she got out of the way. She wasn't, however, so lucky the second time, and her shoulder burned from the laser.

The eyes of Garik and the Jedi younglings flew up and around, trying to find the sniper, but they found nothing. Assuming it to be safe, Aarie tore the bottom of her shirt off in strips, then ran over to the shot Jedi. "Jaina?" the young woman said, trembling, as she touched the Knight's uninjured shoulder.

Jaina's only response was to push Aarie—hard—across the room. "Go further down," she commanded the group, nodding warily toward the stairs. "Don't come up until I call."

"Solo – "

"Just go, 'Rik!"

The use of Garik's childhood nickname seemed to make him aware of just how serious she was. Shepherding the children toward the stairwell, Garik looked back only once. "Keep them alive for questioning," he ordered, confident that Jaina would be the victor.

A clipped nod was only her answer, and then Garik disappeared, with the door closing and locking behind him.

Jaina scanned the large room warily, unhooking her lightsaber from her belt. The assassin had come prepared, probably controlling a few Ysalamiri, and Jaina couldn't sense the other being. Fortunately, there was more than one way to scalp a Sith.

"Well, do you at least have enough honour to show your face?"

Mocking laughter sounded – right behind the far pillar. Jaina drew her own blaster, shooting several times, but knew that the assassin would have already found a new place to hide. "Of course," she said conversationally, "I suppose you're too ugly to want to give me reason to laugh. Although, if you think about it, I might laugh so hard I get distracted, and then you could kill me. Laughing myself to death. Hah!"

A flicker of something behind her appeared on Jaina's radar, but this time she kept her peace, hoping to lull the assassin into a sense of security. Unfortunately, the sniper instead chose to give their position away by firing once more. Again, Jaina leapt out of the way, but her body hadn't been the sniper's target, and Jaina's lightsaber skittered across the floor, smoking and undoubtedly ruined.

"Alright, now I'm mad," Jaina grumbled. "I've had that since I was fourteen, you puzilts." She then sighed with a little disappointment; Sanar knew plenty of insults, but Jaina couldn't understand the significance of half of them. Something to ask her later, the Jedi decided.

"You're supposed to be dead," a genderless voice suddenly began.

"Yeah, well, I'm not, okay? In a bit, you might not be able to say the same."

"Tell you what," the voice said, sounding a little amused, "if you put the blaster down, I'll make it easy on you."

"I'd love to, really, but I've already penciled you in for interrogation later on today. And since I need to be around for that…" Jaina shrugged.

Her eyes imperceptibly darted about the room as she reached out in the Force, trying to discover the origin of the Force void Ysalamiri created. Right there. By the staircase.

"You won't win, Jedi."

Jaina rolled her eyes. "History begs to disagree. Now come on out and make this a clean fight. I have more important things to do than look out for blaster fire. Painting my nails sounds good. So does checking to see if my hair has split ends."

She felt like showing off, so she gathered the Force and leapt all the way across the room, stopping right in front of the assassin. "Maybe you need therapy?" Jaina wondered out loud. "To help you realize the psychological reasons for your shyness, I mean. Well, then, let's start slowly: my name's Jaina; what's yours?"

Out of the shadows, a brown-eyed, dark-haired woman stalked out, wearing Jedi robes and grease on her cheek. "Jaina Solo," the assassin smirked.

The real Jaina groaned. A changeling. Oh, this is just perfect. "There's no one here to fool; quit playing games."

"Why? I'm a much better Jaina Solo than you." The changeling rambled around, twirling her blaster, then picked up Jaina's wrecked lightsaber. "You look like a scruffy, dirty, tired pilot left behind with the children. I, on the other hand…" She gestured to her robes. "I am the combination of excellent Jedi, smuggler and royal heritage. Not to mention, I'm still on my first life."

The resurrected woman's lips tightened. She probably doesn't have two extra people in her head, either. "Don't you think this is a little childish?" she retorted.

"Most of my jobs usually are," the changeling agreed, putting something cold and very un-Jaina (and un-Sanar and un-Zekk) in Jaina's usually fiery eyes. "What would happen, I wonder, if I called those children and that man up?"

"You'd die is what would happen."

A cold sliver of a smile. "Anyone special down there? Onyx, perhaps? Did you send the group to be protected by your lover?"

Real-Jaina's spine stiffened. Was this about Zekk? "Sorry, he jumped ship a month or two ago."

"Too bad. It would have been easier on you."

Now what the kriff did that mean? "I don't need anyone to fight for me," she growled, then moved to kick the other in the face.

The changeling ducked, but the kick glanced off her head, and Jaina's features rippled, showing too-sharp cheek bones, and brownish skin. Spitting an insult, the changeling stood, once more in Jaina's form. "We'll see, Princess."

Jaina rolled out of the way when the assassin shot a warning laser blast. "Wouldn't want the bounty to be harmed," Jaina thought she heard the other mutter.

There was a bounty on her head? Already? Jaina would have dismissed it, but she couldn't escape the feeling that it wasn't because of Brakiss that she was being hunted. Tiring of the questions and the fight, Jaina leapt to her feet. Sending her hand to fly out, Jaina knocked the blaster from her look-alike's hands, then followed it up with a roundhouse kick. The changeling went down – this time, in her real form.

Very deliberately, the Jedi placed her heel over the changeling's throat. "Don't move," she hissed.

More sluggishly than before, the changeling shimmered, and Zekk was suddenly under Jaina's foot. "Jaina? Just let me up, already."

Jaina flinched, but the briefest touch of Zekk's mind, far away though it was, reassured her. "That won't work on the interrogators," she taunted grimly, then reached down and decked the changeling without an iota of guilt.

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Mother Regent Ta'a Chume finished her report, then looked up, her smile as cold as it was false. "You may enter."

Tenel Ka's boot heels clipped the floor in her determination. She had just come from the med-ward, and her temper was only mounting. "How long will you make the Hapan people suffer for your pride?" she hissed, her grey eyes already flashing.

"We won the battle," Ta'a Chume replied, her eyes staying on those of her granddaughter.

"At what cost?" Tenel Ka took a deep breath, but her left eye still twitched in her anger. "Have you been to see your soldiers yet?"

"Of course. They are brave women…and men."

One of Tenel Ka's hands came up to rest on her hip, while the other curled in a fist. Her grandmother had seen the healthy fighters; she had encouraged those left behind. Ta'a Chume had never spared a glance for the dying, the injured, from whom Tenel Ka had just returned. "You must accept the Rebellion's offers of help."

"There is no need."

"There is every need!" Tenel Ka spat in return. "How can you be so blind to your people's suffering? How can you be so cold toward it?"

Ta'a Chume stood in anger, her eyes blazing. "I have imprisoned others for less than your traitorous words," she warned.

Tenel Ka's chin raised proudly. "You are only Mother Regent," she replied softly, but with no less reprimand in her voice.

"Indeed." Ta'a Chume's lips curled in a smile. "But I am Hapes' best chance. Even a child such as yourself can see that. And there is nothing you can do to change it."

Something shifted in Tenel Ka's stance. "We shall see." Turning on her heel, the reluctant princess left her grandmother to her musing calculation.

Some might say that that was the turning point of Hapes' destiny, though it was some time before things truly began to change.

Already, Tenel Ka was proving her true majesty.

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Jaina had never known anyone who wouldn't crack under Kip's dreadful stare, but the changeling was holding up surprisingly well: she had only fainted twice, and her tears were still hidden. Someone had searched the assassin's profile, and put a name to the ever-changing face: Satix Zapini. She wasn't recognizable, by necessity, but rumours had spread of the changeling who never missed their mark.

Guess she'll need to change her profile, Jaina thought with a grim smirk.

Through the viewing glass, Kip looked fit to burst that Satix wouldn't give up the name of her employer. The clone was avoided like a plague, but there were a few things that he was undeniably good at, and one of those things was interrogation. If he failed this time…well, he was Kyp Durron's clone.

"How much longer, do you think?" Jaina asked, bumping Garik's shoulder with her own.

He rolled his grey eyes. "Satix will be dead within fifteen minutes. She hasn't got a chance."

The Jedi's eyes sidled over to regard him mischievously. "Wanna bet?"

"What would be your guess?"

"Kip figures something out. Satix lasts ten minutes before being…convinced of her wrong-doing. Why kill her when she was paid to do this? Anyway, we don't have the blaster fire to spare. I'd put fifty credits on it."

Garik studied Kip's furious countenance, then glanced back at Jaina and nodded. "It's a deal."

Five minutes later, Kip stormed out of the interrogation cell. "She won't say a word. Frelling…assassin! Of all the times for one of her kind to gain enough honour to take the fall…"

"So, nothing?"

Kip's green eyes met Jaina's in disgust. "Nothing whatsoever. She's working for someone, but that's all she'll say." He paced for a moment, curses still flying in his eyes, then stopped to measure Satix through the viewing glass. "I have a theory though."

Smug, Jaina raised an eyebrow at Garik. "Don't you always?"

Realizing something was up, Kip's eyes darted from Jaina to Garik, trying to decipher the joke, and if he was the butt of it. "Dare I take that as a compliment?"

"Sorry." Jaina flushed. "I was being serious."

Garik snickered at the idea.

Kip paused, then gave up. "If this was the old, straight Empire, I would believe this was merely another attempt in a long line to get rid of the Solo line. However, we are dealing with the Sith, whom sometimes look a little deeper into eliminating a threat."

At her side, Jaina felt Garik stir. "For those of us who weren't created with extra intelligence, would you please explain?"

A wince passed over Kip's face, but he continued anyway. "Zekk attempted to kill Brakiss; I doubt the Emperor would let that go unpunished. Besides which, think of all the top-secret information Zekk can let loose on the galaxy. Unfortunately, Zekk has…" Kip's eyes raised to the ceiling, "disappeared for places unknown."

Not entirely unknown, Jaina corrected, remembering her most recent conversation with Zekk, but she kept quiet. Bond-talking to the degree she and Zekk experienced could freak people out, and she was doing that quite well on her own.

"Do you mean to say that…" Garik trailed off.

"I believe capturing Jaina is a…means of catching Zekk."

The named Jedi's eyes flew up, indignant. "They want to use me as bait?"

Kyp would have snapped back at her sarcastically; Kip shifted uncomfortably. "It is quite possible."

Jaina's jaw clenched. "What are you going to do with Satix?" she managed to ask.

Kip shrugged. "She is working for someone else, but she is only freelance. I will have a few – we shall call them conversations – with her, and then let her go."

Although the fun had been sucked out of the bet, Jaina elbowed Garik. "Told you."

Garik only smiled. "Fifteen minutes have not yet passed."

Confused, Jaina stared at him, then turned back to Kip. "Are you sure? About using me as bait, I mean."

"Well…not one hundred percent so, but it would explain things quite well."

"Did you use the Force on Satix at all?"

"She proved quite resistant; it was due to more than just Ysalamiri that you could not sense her earlier."

That Kip hadn't been able to push past Satix's shields meant very little. The Imperials, when they had made Kip, had been unable to fully recreate Kyp's strength in the Force. Jaina spared Kip's ego that reminder, however, saying instead, "Can I talk to her?"

Garik responded before Kip did. "Your attempts in the safe house were hardly successful."

"If you wish," Kip agreed, overruling Garik. "I must warn you, though: it is unlikely to do much good. Satix has already built her shields against you."

Jaina's features were carved from stone. "She hasn't seen anything yet." Trusting Kip to signal the OK to the guards, Jaina burst through the door, letting it slam shut behind her. "Satix Zapini?" she said. "We need to have a little chat, you and I."

The changeling looked up, sweat making her face sheen in the light. "I'm not saying anything; don't waste your time." Just to spite the Jedi, Satix's face rippled into that of Jaina. She let it go almost immediately, and it drained her depleted energy, but it was worth it to see Jaina cringe.

It was Jaina who slapped the bounty hunter/assassin, but neither Sanar nor Zekk protested. "Do you mean to say you're willing to die for your temporary boss?" Jaina snarled, putting one hand on each side of Satix, getting right in her face. Her words were slathered in the Force.

Satix's eyes glazed, but she held on remarkably well. "Traitors must be dealt with," she stated in a monotone.

Jaina was beginning to wonder if a Dark Jedi had played with Satix's head, making it impossible for her to betray them. "If you're talking about me, a moisture farmer's daughter by the name of 'Jana Salo' swore fealty to the Empire, not I."

Interest brightened Satix's eyes as she absorbed what Jaina had said. "It should be easy for the Empire to use and discard you, then."

Jaina's hands dropped to her side in fists, and she took half a step back. "Don't worry: it won't be."

"You'd feel better if it was; if you live, you will only survive to hear your lover tortured…and silenced – but only after a very long time. And, somehow, I don't think he has a second life waiting for him."

In one smooth, furious movement, Jaina drew her blaster and shot Satix twice, right through her mocking, disgusting, lying mouth. Immediately, the changeling slumped in death.

Garik, who had been waiting behind, reached out and gently lowered Jaina's arm. She started, but her glare remained on Satix's bony face.

"Fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds."

This time, Jaina did look up. "What?"

"She didn't last the extra fifteen minutes." Garik shrugged and smiled, diffusing the tension that had created a stale atmosphere in the cell. "You owe me fifty credits."

Jaina put her blaster away and felt her pockets for loose credits, grimacing. "How 'bout if I pay for lunch instead?"

"I'm picking the restaurant."

"Fine, but nothing with bones." With a last shudder in Satix's direction, Jaina followed Garik out of the cell.

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Any comments would be appreciated :)

.Tjz